Well, that must have been an interesting 8-10 hours last night.

While many of us were watching the NFC Championship game Twitter blew up with reports that Chip Kelly was talking to Tampa Bay.

I went to bed as all sorts of speculation was saying that Kelly took the job...What happened?

Of course speculation immediately centered around the reason(s) as to why Kelly would bolt so close to signing day.

Many think it has to do with the NCAA. I am not one of those for a very simple and obvious reason...The NCAA has not sent a notice of allegations to UO, let alone set a date for the COI to meet. All they have sent so far is a letter of inquiry. We can speculate all we want about what we might think happened between Kelly and Willie Lyles but until the NCAA tips their hand its all speculation.

Kelly's flirtation with the NFL is natural.

Kelly is the flavor of the month after his big win in the Rose Bowl and all the attention that UO has received over the past 24-36 months.

The NFL is looking for the next hot thing.

USC fans have been down this road before with Pete Carroll...the only difference there is that Pete Carroll had a history with the NFL, we all knew that at some point he was going to scratch that NFL itch. Kelly, to my knowledge, has never been a part of an NFL staff (correct me if I am wrong, I don't fell like trying to look it up). I have no doubt that Chip Kelly wanted this, but as things started to break you can believe pressure was brought to bear on him to make a decision quick.

I am sure that Uncle Phil got on the phone.

The more intriguing aspect of this is that it is going on so close to national signing day. I realize there is never a good time, but if Kelly was going to go to the NFL he could have a number of these conversations right after the the Ducks Rose Bowl win. It doesn't take much to hammer out a deal. Because Kelly doesn't have an NFL track record he has little leverage unlike Jeff Fisher who has an NFL pedigree.

Anyway, it makes for interesting theater.

Kelly can stay or go, it really doesn't matter...but with Kelly's known negative recruiting tactics the tables will now be turned. He will have some explaining to do.

If you want to read further here are some links...

"Sources: Chip Kelly changes his mind, will stay at Oregon" | The Register-Guard

Chip Kelly pulling a double-reverse pass with the Buccaneers, right? | OregonLive.com

Chip Kelly to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Then what? | OregonLive.com

"Schroeder: Chip Kelly’s dream, for now, is in Eugene" | The Register-Guard

Just another day in the world of college football......

Larry Scott is ever the opportunist.

Scott said it’s "great" for the conference that USC will be back in the postseason mix starting next season.

Scott addressed that topic and some other Trojans-related matters, including the return of quarterback Matt Barkley, before this year’s Rose Bowl game. Here’s what Scott had to say:

(on whether he’s glad to have USC bowl eligible again)

"Absolutely. USC is an iconic program, the predominant program of the last 10 years. … I suspect they’ll be one of the top-ranked teams at the beginning of the season. It’s great for our conference."

(on the domino effect of USC not being eligible the past two years)

"We’ve been one team down in terms of fulfilling our bowl obligations the last couple years. All of our bowl partners are really happy, I can assure you of that."

The joke of a Pac-12 Title game was an embarrassment.

All his bluster pointed at the NCAA about what was going on at tOSU while USC burned was for show.

Just curious, if Oregon's Rose Bowl Title (congrats to the Ducks BTW) is vacated over Willie Lyles and UO is placed on probation what will Scott do then?

I give Scott credit for some of his vision, but Scott's actions don't match his words.

And don't get me started on the deal he cut with the Big-10...that deal isn't all that you might think it is. It takes away the opportunity that teams like USC use to schedule solid OOC opponents, especially with a 9-game conference schedule.

Scott won't be around for long. You can see him coming from a mile away, he has bigger fish to fry.

This is just a stop along the way. He doesn't want to stick around the Pac-12 forever like Tom Hansen did...Hansen didn't have any ambition other that leading the Pac-10.

I can't wait for next season!

I have had my issues with Larry Scott in the past but I have to admit that Scott is visionary.

A day after implying during an interview at the conference's annual media day in L.A. that an announcement about a Pacific-12 Network was still a ways off, commissioner Larry Scott told a New York press conference at an East Coast media day that it's all been pulled together.

A deal that the conference calls "innovative" and "transformative" in its press release, the Pac-12 Network will begin in August, 2012 as a two-pronged entity -- one nationally distributed, and six regional networks in Southern California, Northern California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and the Mountain regions that are directly linked with Time Warner, Comcast, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks.

The Pac-12 would own the channels as Pac-12 Media Enterprises, which would also expand to wireless services.

The landscape is changing faster than anyone can keep up.

Scott took the road of content and not profits.

He gets major kudos for that.

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Well, here we are at Chelsea Market!

Things are supposed to start at 5pm but one of the buses from Bristol, Ct was late. Thank god...because I just got here.

So, my hope is to Tweet and post but I think it will just be Tweeting...

Join us!!

By now you have all seen or heard about Wille Lyles supposedly coming to clean to Yahoos! Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel.

It is no secret that I am not a fan of Robinson. He and Jason Cole still haven't proved that former USC Basketball Coach Tim Floyd paid off Rodney Guillory. So, obviously I always take what Robinson writes with a grain of salt. Wetzel has his own journalistic integrity issues dating back to when he was pulled off the Reggie Bush story.

That being said...

Willie Lyles opens up about his relationship with Oregon and Oregon Head Coach Chip Kelly.

In a wide-ranging, multi-day interview, Lyles said Kelly "scrambled" in late February and asked Lyles to submit retroactive player profiles to justify the $25,000 payment to his company, just days before the transaction was revealed in a March 3 Yahoo! Sports report. Lyles also provided details of his fledgling company – Complete Scouting Services (CSS) – as well as the extent of his relationship with numerous Texas high school stars and his role in Ducks’ recruitment of certain prospects.

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I have read the Cliff Harris story with some amusement.

In the grand scheme of things his situation is really just a blip on the radar. Kids do stupid things in cars or bars or whatever all the time.

It is what kids do.

I am pushing 50-years old, so I have seen plenty. I had some pretty active teenage years...you name it we did it growing up. We drank, we toked and got into all sorts of trouble but nothing too crazy. Every once in a while the local cops would show up to calm us down but it was really nothing out of the ordinary.

But the Harris story is a little bit different for two reasons...

1) Harris plays football for Oregon, who as we all know is getting a lot of publicity these days...most of it good, some of it controversial.

2) The amount of traffic violations and the fines attached to said violations.

I can live with a traffic violation here and there...but 11? With the most recent racing down the interstate at 118 MPH? With fines totaling over $8000?

I really don't care what happens to Harris. I will give Chip Kelly the benefit of the doubt in suspending Harris. But it really is a them problem, not a me problem.

My amusement comes form all the rationalizing I have read about this just being a dumb mistake.

To me it is simple...Oregon is the "IN" thing right now. The spotlight gets a little brighter when your team is getting all the attention. Every little issue, legitimate or not, is going to be scrutinized. Are Oregon fans really happy that Harris put their program in the news because of this incident? If he hurt or killed somebody because of his recklessness would some still continue to rationalize his behavior?

What is the threshold of being outraged?

Oregon has some good things going for it right now, do they really need this?

I won't even comment on the school employee renting the car then allowing Harris to use it...you can draw your own conclusions. I will only say this...Lack of Institutional Control has been levied against other schools for less.

Why take that chance?

This is what happens when you're the flavor of the month. It happened a few times at 'SC during our incredible run and it has happened at other schools who have reached national recognition. It is how things cycle. Our society makes it a sport to take shots at those who get a little too big for their britches.

Welcome to the bright lights!

It is hard to argue that Larry Scott didn't put together a good deal for the conference.

The LA Times has some of the particulars...

Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott said the deal leaves room for the conference to launch its own network next year, similar to what the Big Ten Conference started in 2007 in partnership with Fox.

Whereas the Big Ten only owns 49% of its network, Scott said the Pac-12 will keep total ownership of its network.

Scott said the Pac-12 will save premium content for its conference network -- ESPN and Fox will have the rights to 44 football games a season with a Pac-12 network getting the rights to 36 football games.

"And the [Pac-12] network will have very high-quality games," Scott said, "with either the first, second or third selections in different weeks. The conference network will have the best game of the week a couple of weeks each season.

"The ESPN family and Fox will have 68 basketball games and we'll have over 100 games for the Pac-12, and again a high quality."

Scott said the league also plans to develop its own digital network, similar to ESPN3, that will carry up to 500 events a year. Scott said he expects a Pac-12 network and the digital network to be up and running by August of 2012.

One thing that stays in place is our match-up against Notre Dame. There were rumblings that the USC/ND game was going to fall prey to the out of conference scheduling rule that says that OOC games can't be scheduled after the third week in the season.

Again, I can't fault Larry Scott for getting such a lucrative deal for the conference as a whole. He really did a great job in getting this done.

But I am still left scratching my head that USC (and to a lesser extent UCLA) left so much on the table.

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